My mother before she married was a school teacher. So she home schooled me until age five. As I entered the first grade I was already able read, write, and solve math problems at a second grade level.

Mom's favorite subject was history. She also told me whom some of our ancestors were and where they came from.

I really got into world history in high school. Twenty years laterI became interested in genealogy and since then have found both
disciplines inextricably linked.

From an early age I knew that Kelly ancestors came from Ireland, as my parents and grand parents often talked about it. Grandma hardly stopped talking about it.

I suspected that some ancestors came from places other than Ireland. It was 1998 when Rutledge/Routledge
cousins informed me that their original homeland was North England, Cumbria,
three miles south of the Anglo-Scot border where history placed them among the infamous Border Reiver Clans. along with Armstrong and Graham.

Further Research pointed to several places in Europe
where history suggests they originated.

History further suggested they came from that vast area between Denmark and France, which included Germany, Austria, Belgium and Netherland, an area now known as Normandy.